Good Thing We Have Plenty of Rice-A-Roni...

Took these through our screened window because there's no way you can get me outside today.


Waking up is hard to do but I think she makes bed head look fab.
Someone is still enjoying Thanksgiving leftover.

T-5 Until Uma Goes Postal

Number of times my baby was rudely woken up from her nap/night time sleep THIS WEEK by our neightbors/their dogs: 5

Number of times I cried with my baby out of sheer frustration about our current living situation: 2

I'm on the verge of kicking down some doors and breaking yappy dogs' necks. I can't take it anymore. To make the matter worse, I'm married to a seasoned soldier, who's been trained to sleep through bombs and mortar attacks. So only Chase and I wake up super pissed, while our Building Coordinator stays perfectly asleep. I've done everything I could to muffle all the noises in the kid's room but things just seem to get louder and louder around here. I'M GOING BONKER. Life with a cranky, sleep-deprived baby is so miserable. Now I truly understand how people arrive at violence as the final solution. Oh, I wish I were kidding, too.

*Update*

I posted this sign on our building's front door. Wonder how long it would take before someone finds it annoying and tears it down?

I'm writing this note to ask you a small favor. I have a 7-month old baby, who rarely goes a day without getting woken up by the sound of door slamming, dog barking, or heavy footing. I understand we live in an apartment and having to hear what our neighbors are up to is just an unfortunate part of it. We've dealt with it the best we know how; I have a white noise machine in her room and we keep her window closed and covered with heavy drapes. However, it seems that things have taken a turn for the worse as of late. Chase is woken up daily from both her naps and night time sleep, repeatedly. I'm not asking you to stop living your life, but please do be mindful of door closing and your dogs. If our situation weren't so dire, I would not have asked. Thank you for your understanding.

Rudesheim Christmas Market

After our belly-stretching Turkey day, we had to get out of the house to burn off some excess energy. I was adamant that we weren't going to do that Black Friday thing as I found the commercialization of Christmas to be rather off-putting. Last year I missed every single one of the Christmas market because I was either busy throwing up or couldn't properly walk because of the sciatic nerve. Even though it was so incredibly cold (33-34 degrees), I had come to terms with the fact that this was as good as it was going to get for a while. So we packed up Chase's bunting suit in her diaper bag and off we went to Rudesheim. It's a small village on the Rhine river that has a rich and long history in winemaking. We headed straight into the beautiful old part of town for the market, and what a fun time we had! I didn't get as many pictures was I would like, because it was so cold and we had to keep moving. There weren't that many tourists around just yet since it was in the middle of Friday afternoon, but a bunch of Germans, who belonged to some kind of funny hat club, were all out drinking and having a good time. They were fun to follow and watch. We also got to meet up with our dear friend Carol and Bryan, who was home for R&R from his tour in Iraq, at the end of the day at a lovely, and cozy warm, restaurant to have a really great meal. Welcome home, Bryan! Here are some of our pictures:

Cold little ponies.

Ralphie...
Chaster saluting the toy soldiers.
Yummy fresh mushrooms.
Drosselgasse is a famous street in Rudesheim because this short and narrow little street is completely lined with bars and restaurant on both sides. During the harvest season and wine festivals, it's often called the happiest place on earth. I don't think Mickey could compete with booze.




She doesn't look too happy, does she? Maybe we have an animal rights activist on our hands.
Rudesheim Castle.
My little World Traveler was such a great sport. She missed 2 out of her 3 naps that day, couldn't suck her thumbs because of the bunting suit, but still managed to charm every German grandma in the village. My kid rocks.

I don't know if you can see a sea of Santa's hats in the back. Those were the funny hat people I was talking about. They sure did know how to have a good time in the cold.
I adore all the wooden handmade toys. This shop was really like Santa's workshop.
Not exactly a beautiful section of the Rhine, but you can see another beautiful little Rhine village of Bingen in the background (at least I think it is Bingen--we'll find out when we head back up that way the next time).
Had to get my share of AMAZING spiesbraten and caramelized onion. I display the kind of exuberant joy when I see meat on a spit much the same way most other females do with shoes and handbags. What am I going to do when we leave Germany?
Carol and Bryan.
It was so dark when we left (I had to triple adjust the exposure of the picture, so you can actually see something), and it was only 6:00 P.M.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well Uma's turkey turned out to be fabulous and we had a great time with our friends enjoying the food and sharing everything that we had to be thankful for. To all of our friends and family I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for being a part of our lives. This is what I am most thankful for.

Ta Da!

So my neighbor came home at 2 A.M. and didn't go to sleep for another hour and a half. Ask me how I know this...

Also, as promised, here's Chaster's new bib.


She has three of these to dirty until I find some other soft fabric to mess around with. Wil suggested the button because Chase has learned to pull her other bibs off. I think it's cuter that way.

I'm cooking my first turkey ever. Good thing my friend Mara has DiGiorno in her freezer...

Thankful

I know I have seriously been lacking with the updates these past few weeks. Our old routine just seems a bit boring in comparison to our mini vacation in Baden-Baden, so much so that I had a post vacation blues after returning to the cold and dreary Baumholder from Baden-Baden, where I wore a cotton sundress with a lightweight sweater and sandals. I had never lived anywhere where snow was expected and not just a random novelty wintry occasion until this move to Germany. Couple that with my fear of having a sick baby on my hand and I inevitably have turned us into two hermits in the apartment. Right now with the snow on the ground and the temperature barely going up past the freezing point during the warmest time of the day, I honestly don't see how that's going to change. And since I just ranted about the upstairs neighbor, you know these four walls (plus one large ceiling) are closing in fast on me. Yesterday Wil detected a slight panic in my voice and decided that I needed a change of scenery. He dropped us off at the library on the way to the park with the boys. I wore Chaster in our Ergo and she felt asleep quickly (just in time, too, since her new round of teething was bothering her so much that she barely napped all day. And you know that I needed her to nap as much as she needed one herself) leaving me to browse quietly and happily. I love libraries and I love to read. I credited this to my mom, who shared her love of books and reading with me early. I never cared much for toys as a child and would read anywhere I could. Mom made sure we had endless supply of books and magazines around the house. When I was little and found myself in between the next summer camp and time at grandma's house and was old enough to be left alone, mom would drop me off at the main library in Bangkok, which also happened to be just a few minutes away from her work. I would spend half a day in the magazine room, where a collection of magazines from around the world were housed. I couldn't read English well yet at the time (this was around 4th-6th grade?), but mom showed me a copy of National Geographic and I was hooked. I "read" Time, Vogue, lots of newspaper in different languages, all kinds of magazines, and was never ready when she came to fetch me for lunch. I couldn't wait to go back for the afternoon, when I went upstairs to read whatever that happened to be in the room I wandered into. It was a fantastic way to spend that part of the summer. I hope Chase love everything about the library as much as I do. She has already checked out quite a few books, with her mother's encouragement. We try to make it to the library every week but lately it's been more like two. Chase gets a few new reading materials and mom gets to fill her lungs with that old book smell. Hmmm....how I love papercuts.

Now I have to update you on the health of my family starting with our boys. This is around the time of the year when Brutus finally comes out of his dormant stage. My furry boy doesn't get very active when the temperature is above 45 degrees, which means that he was quite miserable the whole year in North Carolina. I've been getting reports from Wil that he has performed some seriously complicated and acrobatic moves at the park trying to catch snowballs and been running circles around Paddy in the snow. Just to be clear, this is the boy with a SEVERE case of hip dysplasia. Paddy is still the biggest baby ever and now even more in love with his little sis since baby-led weaning method leads to table scraps. I'm also getting a bit more worried about his much-abused joints as he approaches his third birthday and getting a few more pops and crackles when he gets up and down. Both the boys have been on a very good joint supplement since they were babies, and I'm hopeful that they will still have this spunk for play and park when they celebrate their 10th birthday. A mother can hope.

As for my Beloved, he and I have reached an agreement that, in order for us to be able to enjoy the scrumptious holiday baking and feasts, we would have cereal/oatmeal for breakfast and dinner and make lunch the biggest, and perhaps the most indulgent, meal of the day. I sometimes feel like an enabler making him treats that he requests (in a 5-year-old style, with big sad doe eyes and quivering bottom lip), but it seems cruel to deprive him of his favorites over the holidays. Poor Wil has been playing second fiddle to the baby these whirlwind 7 months without as much as a complaint, and it's time I'm making a serious effort in giving him back the wife/best bud he marries and not just be the mother to his precious baby girl.

Last but never least, your favorite little Steinhauer, who never fails to amaze me on a daily basis with her tenacity and love. For a while, Wil and I were happy with the idea of living our lives together as a twosome (plus B&P), but now looking back, I don't know how I ever found life without Chase whole. She's growing and thriving everyday, and it's so thrilling yet scary to see this part of our lives flying by in the fast forward motion. She loves to eat and play tag with Paddy on Momma's shoulders, has learned to slowly and gently pet Brutus, knows signs for milk and Papa and how to give a kiss. She's made her mom a better person. Quite a list of accomplishments for a 7-month-old baby.

Now on to some overdue pictures:

Her first serious allergic reaction. The culprit: baby yogurt. Her whole face swelled up. I still can't talk about it. She's fine now though.
Paddy displaying a proper way to occupy the bed.
"Please, momma, I'm trying to read."
"Maybe the stain will teach you to put a bib on me."
She's going through her bibs quickly thanks to the combination of teething and solid foods. So I tried making a few bibs today. Promise to show you the results when they are done.
I learned that my wool sock caused my foot to slip a little on the pedal. One never wants the working foot to slip while sewing.
I had to document the moment after she really spitted up on the top of my head (we were playing airplane--after oatmeal. Dumb, I know). She's almost as big as me already!
She really does like to feed herself despite the tired face she has on here.
Self feeding in action. Hmmm...pear.
I just started letting her sit up during her bath. Don't you just want to kiss those fat rolls?

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving from all of us here!

Should I Offer to Buy Her Some Carpet?

I'm on the verge of becoming a very nasty neighbor and going upstairs to yell at my neighbor and her dog for waking my kid up every single day this week. It's 5 A.M. Do you think I'll get my message across? My kid is not the kind that can go back to sleep after being rudely woken up by loudness over her room. I should drag her down here to apologize to my baby and make her babysit until 7:00 A.M. God, I hate living in an apartment. I really really hate it.